A high drama was witnessed at and around nine-storey Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) building at Bandra in north-west Mumbai on Monday, as the fire fighters daringly rescued 84 people — most of whom MTNL employees — trapped on the terrace after a major fire out in two floors of the building.
One fireman Sagar D Salve (25) was rushed to the nearby Bhabha Hospital after he suffered from intense suffocation while fighting the blaze. Later in the evening, the doctors at the hospital described Salve’s condition as “stable”.
In a dousing effort that lasted for nearly four hours, the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) — for the first time in the country — deployed a fire fighting robot — in its operation, as 200-0dd rescuers battled with the fire and consequent smoke in the third and fourth floors of the building and evacuated 84 people trapped on the terrace of the building.
Acquired by the MFB last week, the Rs 2 crore fire fighting robot — better known as “RoboFire” is remotely controlled by an operator and is equipped with a camera and caterpillar tracks to manoeuvre in any terrain.
The fire broke out at 3.10 pm at the MTNL’s Bandra telephone exchange, located on the busy SV Road. Before long, the police cordoned off traffic on the road to enable fire brigade vehicles to rush to the tragedy site, an action that led to massive traffic snarls roads leading to the northern suburbs.
The enormity of the fire could be gauged from the fact that the 31 fire tenders, one Quick Response Vehicle, Robofire, six 6 Jet Towers, two Turn Table Ladders and one Angus ladder in their operation.
With fire and smoke having engulfed fourth and fifth floors, there was no escape route for many of the MTNL employees who rushed to the terrace which eventually proved to be a prudent move.
Huge crowds had gathered around the Bandra telephone exchange building to witness the fire fighting and rescue drama. Several of the trapped MTNL employees —women wrapped their ‘dupattas’ on their faces and men hand towels and karchiefs were seen frantically waving their hands and screaming for help from the rescue teams stationed below.
The rescuers — braving strong winds — made it to the terrace using sophisticated ladders and brought down the people trapped on the terrace using sophisticated ladders at their disposal. What had made matters worse for the rescuers was thick cloud of smoke emanating from the fire-hit building.
MTNL’s Executive Director AK Srivastava confirmed that almost all the people trapped on the terrace were brought down safely by the fire brigade personnel by 6 pm.
Monday’s was the consecutive major fire mishap in the metropolis two consecutive days. On Sunday, one person was killed and 14 others were rescued, when fire broke in an old dilapidated building located behind Taj Mahal Hotel on Merry Weather Road at Colaba in south Mumbai.
Two persons, including a fireman, were injured in the mishap.The fire, which broke out in a third floor flat of Church Chember Building at around 12.10 pm on Sunday, had spread to stair case of the second floor of the ground plus three-storey structure. Electric wiring, installations, furniture, household articles in the third floor flat with loft in an area about approx.5000 sq ft and staircase of the 2nd floor were gutted in the fire.
One Sham Iyer (54), a resident of the flat where fire broke out, who had gone back inside the flat after his family members ram out, to extinguish fire and got trapped in the blaze, was killed, before the fire brigade arrived on the scene.